As a quantum optics hobbyist, I applaud David and Serge's work. Their calculations match my own and are soft of a justification for every one of us out that that said you could in fact measure the immeasureable. I know these guys were working hard - too hard to answer letters apparently - and they deserve the accolades.

As a stay at home father of two junior college students, who are currently taking introductory physics and astronomy classes, I have to say that I'm worried about the future of our country's education programs. Paul Broun and Todd Akin are dragging us right back into the dark ages with their faith based arguments and complete ignorance. They want us to return to the Middle Ages when the church was all powerful and pedagogical development was at a standstill. Can you imagine how happy they'd be if we didn't have science programs, but instead spent vast sums on religious indoctrination and faith initiatives?

I'll have you know that at this very moment I am broadcasting signals into outer space - signals that contain precise instructions for an invading alien force -- where to hit, how to hit, and when to hit. And they are receiving these messages too. Just google random numbers, map each number to its corresponding word in the American College Dictionary, and then feed those words into Google translate. You'll see exactly what I've seen - the aliens constructed google and are using it as a communications channel to correspond with us in the know.

Bottom line - we need smart people making decisions. Smart people like me. I should do something about this.

Unfortunately for America, even if our leaders don't believe in science, there are plenty of other countries out there that do, and they will clean our clocks in the 21st century if we do not get rid of these idiots.

The vast majority of these people are just plain stupid.. They got elected by equally stupid people.

I'm not a scientist or anything but it's pretty clear why those guys won the award. Being able to observe changes at the quantum level will allow us to then manipulate things at the quantum level.. Once we're at the level to manipulate and then observe we'll have a viable quantum computing base. From then on it's huge.. Perhaps by 2025 we'll have our first QC processor which will be thousands of times faster than standard silicon processors. Thousands!

That committee is a parking lot for losers in Congress. It doesn't authorize legislation and it doesn't appropriate funds, so it's a dead-end backwater that nobody cares about. Don't let the fancy sounding name fool you.

DonQuixote314159:FTFA:Rachel Maddow ripped Republican members of the House Science Committee on her Tuesday MSNBC show, contrasting their science-related comments to the scientists who won the Nobel Peace Prize.

They won the Nobel Prize in Physics, not the Nobel Peace Prize, dumbass article writer.

/Didn't watch the video, so I don't know if Rachel Maddow made the same mistake

She did not. I watched it last night, I am pretty sure she said Physics.

Girl From The North Country:coeyagi: DonQuixote314159: FTFA:Rachel Maddow ripped Republican members of the House Science Committee on her Tuesday MSNBC show, contrasting their science-related comments to the scientists who won the Nobel Peace Prize.

They won the Nobel Prize in Physics, not the Nobel Peace Prize, dumbass article writer.

/Didn't watch the video, so I don't know if Rachel Maddow made the same mistake

She did not. I watched it last night, I am pretty sure she said Physics.

The big problem is that committee seats aren't determined by credentials but rather are incentives that are offered based on interest. The people who are most tempted by a committee membership and most willing to jump through hoops to get it are the ones who sees the related field as problematic and in need of fixing.

It would be like if you had an opening on the House Budget Committee and your options are a guy who majored in finance who sees our system as generally functional (sort of a necessary evil) but could use some tweaking and an English major who thinks the way we do everything is terrible and we need to completely destroy the current tax and spending structures and replace it with their ideal system. The first guy might actually know more about what he's doing, but the second guy will crawl over broken glass and vote against their beliefs on every other issue for the party leadership if he gets that spot.

And the chairman for the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is 89 year old Ralph Hall. Hall is a former Texas judge who has now been in congress for 32 years. He was a democrat until the Bush administration came into power, then he switched parties, mostly because he is a long time friend of the Bush family. He was heavily involved with Jack Abramoff, indeed Abramoff made 15 calls to his office the day the CNMI scandal broke, but there were no consequences to him from this.

So the USA has a crooked dotard in charge of one of the most important committees for America's future. This will not end well.

ugh... i can't even watch TV news entertainment. this is the left version of bill o'reilly. Please just report the story and move on, there's no need to inject sarcasm. How about doing some reporting and find out how these guys are selected and how this selection process has held up scientific advancement over the years?

You do know that Obamacare was written by Republicans, right? Not Democrats?

That said - come back and try again after a Democrat goes on record as believing that "There's no such thing as cancer, only the four humours, therefore we must destroy all chemotherapy wards and cure them with leeches." It'll probably be a while, but I'm sure that nobody here will mind the wait.